Apparently, safety doesn't matter during rehearsals

So I was watching a rehearsal today and I see a batten going out real shaky. The batten is holding (3) 12'x4' Hollywood flats and 3 pieces of fabric about 12'x3'. I go backstage to see what is going on and I see 8 people hoisting up this batten with an empty arbor. I say STOP and have them bring it in and tell them to lock it. But the director tells them over com to bring it up and they tell me and I say "no its not safe, your an idiot if you do that." Well apparently they tell the director that I called all of them idiots and she blows up on me. I tell her that its not safe and that they shouldn't do it. She says that they need the practice doing it and that we have done it before unweighted. I say that it doesn't matter if we have done it before, its not safe and very idiotic. So now the director despises me... great!

hahaha funny story about punching bags...I walked into the shop backstage the other day to find that my crew has completely gone against my rule and hung a punching bag in the middle of the shop. The next day, one of my techies comes in with a cast on here hand, her response when I ask her what happened, she said "I punched the punching bag too many times." Needless to day I took it down that day and locked it up.

I am so glad my HS didn't have a fly system. I am also glad I'm not in HS.

This is now the third time I've responded a topic like this, and its really getting old.

You need to make sure this never happens again. Other times I said go to the director, then go to the administration. By now I've realized that student concerns are often ignored. So go to your parents. Tell them the director is making students work in unsafe conditions. Tell them that you feel that your safety (and life) is at risk. Administrators will listen to parents. Have your parents talk to other parents. This will make things happen.

This is the third time I've said this, and I NEVER want to say it again.

The guy in charge of the place has no idea how to weight it or has any safety knowledge or common sense...

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Another reason why counterweight systems don't belong in High Schools... but there are many already in place.

Thankfully, you saw what was happening, and were able to stop it. The director may be mad at you, but you may have prevented a terrible accident. Please, don't let the director's attitude stop you from doing the same thing in the future.

As was said previously, it's time to get the parents involved and have them raise the safety issues to the administration.

If that is the case, then to be blunt, students shouldn't be operating the fly. If there is no one in the school properly qualified in rigging, and they wish to use the fly system for productions, then they need to hire qualified professionals to rig and run the show.

Using a fly system is more than just loading weights and pulling ropes... who is determining the proper methods for attaching scenery to the battens? If this isn't being done by someone qualified, then you've got even more issues.

I learned at my old school.

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At least they seem to have taught you well on the safety aspects... be thankful for that.

Oh for crying out loud how ****ing hard is it to reweight!!! Yes I've had that problem. Fortunately its getting better. The pros that do some of our shows finally started making some very strong suggestions about the safety stuff... and its helping. Seriously, there are situations stuff has to be out of weight, but it requires training to do that safely (which is clearly lacking 90% of the time in high schools, plus paying attention which is also lacking 90% of the times at high schools), and there is still a much higher chance of something going wrong.

Now if somebody'd figure out a way to fly insoft goods without it being way out of weight I'd love them . Can you guess what I got nominated to do last week?